Category: Outdoors

Save trees from bark mulch and rodents

If you have cleaned up the vegetable garden and cut back your perennials, you might be feeling just a little smug — especially since this gardening guy admits he is behind you in completing those tasks. But there may still be tasks for you to do, and important ones for the trees on your property.

Are you one of those gardeners who has fallen in love with bark mulch? Do you use it not only in flower gardens but also around trees planted in the lawn to keep down weeds, hold in moisture, and keep the deadly string trimmer at bay? If you do, take a few moments to walk around and check out your trees and shrubs.

Bark mulch should never touch the stems of woody plants. You need a doughnut hole around your trees: a 4- to 6-inch area bare of mulch on all sides of your beloved trees. Why? Tree bark protects the tree from rain and snow, but it will eventually rot if it is covered with soil or bark mulch. And if the rot extends into the cambium layer — the layer beneath the bark — it will, eventually, kill the tree. But mulch is not the only culprit. Many trees are planted too deeply and the flare is covered with soil, which is just as lethal.

If you look at a tree that Mother Nature planted – or perhaps it was a forgetful squirrel — you will see that tree flares or widens at its base. That part of the tree needs to be planted above ground at planting time. Unfortunately, trees sold in pots often have the trunk flare covered with soil and get planted just the way they were in the pot. I have seen trees in large pots with the trunk flare covered by 4 inches of soil or more.

Mulch or soil over the trunk flare does not kill your tree right away. It often takes from six to 10 years to see signs of decline. Look at the tips of branches at the top of the tree. Leaf loss there is a definite sign of decline. Early color change in the fall is another sign. That maple that turns color before others on the property? It may be stressed by bark rot caused by damage to the trunk flare.

So examine your trees. If the trunk flare is covered with mulch or soil, you have work to do. If a tree is straight (like a telephone pole) at the soil surface, you need to pull the mulch away. And if you still don’t see a flared area, you need to re-grade the soil around your tree.

Use gloved hands or work gently with a hand tool to remove the soil around the tree until you see the trunk flare. You may notice fine roots in the soil or mulch as you remove it, but these roots can be cut away. You are looking for big roots headed away from the trunk. Keep your hand tool away from the trunk as the bark will be tender, and easily damaged. But the good news is that most trees will recover if you remove the soil or bark mulch and let the bark dry out.

If you have planted a tree on a hillside, I assume you planted it to be vertical. But to do that you had to cut back into the uphill side of the planting area to create a flat spot. If, after planting, erosion has moved soil downhill to cover one side of the trunk, remove that. People with excavators working on your property presumably know not to pile soil against the bark of trees, but check anyway. Remove soil as needed.

Another fall task involves protecting young trees from damage by rodents. The worst is the meadow vole. These are little rodents that look a lot like mice but stockier, with short tails. Think of mice as ballerinas and voles as hockey players. They often leave tunnels in the lawn during the winter.

Voles can reach sexual maturity in just 5 weeks after birth, so they can increase in numbers exponentially, given the right conditions. If hungry enough, they will chew the bark off young trees, killing them by damaging the tender cambium layer and eating the phloem all around a tree, girdling it.

Young fruit trees are the most susceptible to girdling. Older trees have thicker bark and are generally less interesting to rodents. If you planted an apple tree within the last five years, you should protect the bark. Even if they did not damage the tree in the past, you cannot assume they will not this year. If there are high numbers of voles this year, and a deep snow cover to hide them from predators, they may attack.

The best way to protect trees against damage by voles is to surround the trunk with a ring of wire mesh called hardware cloth. Get some with quarter-inch spacing of the wires, and create a ring 24 inches tall. Make the ring of wire big enough to leave a couple of inches of space between the mesh and the trunk. That will allow the tree to get fatter without meeting the hardware cloth. If you have low branches (within 24 inches of the ground), you can prune them off to accommodate the wire mesh.

Hardware cloth comes in 24-inch rolls. You will need tin snips to cut it and leather gloves to protect your fingers. The stuff is like razor wire once cut. But, having seen what rodents can do, I recommend protecting new trees. There are plastic wraps and special cloth wraps that claim to protect against rodents, and may, but I have not tried them. They are definitely easier to use. So check out your trees, and get busy if need be.

Featured photo: Hardware cloth will keep rodents from chewing the bark and killing this young cherry tree. Courtesy photo.

How to plant bulbs for forcing indoors

I love the winter, but by March I am ready for spring. I usually have some snowdrops blooming in March on a south-facing hillside, but they are subtle, not bodacious blooms. So I plant lots of bulbs indoors in the fall and keep them cool until it is time to bring them into the warmth of the house, and I get indoor tulips, daffodils and more in March. That’s what forcing bulbs is all about. It’s simple, really, but there are a few tips I can share since I do this every year.

Most bulbs are described on their packages as early, mid-season or late. Go to your local garden center and look for bulbs that are labeled as early bloomers — they are the best for forcing. Buy daffodils, some tulips and maybe some small bulbs like crocus or grape hyacinths. You can plant these bulbs in large pots or even in your window box if you bring it in.

You will also need some potting soil and compost. I make a mix that is half compost, half potting soil for forcing bulbs. I don’t use garden soil because it can be heavy and often stays wet. Bulbs can rot if they are left in wet soil for too long. I often reuse the potting mix that I used for growing annual plants outdoors in summer. I just pull up the summer’s plants, fluff up the soil, add some compost as needed, and make sure it is damp to start. If it is dry, I water it before I plant my bulbs.

Each year I plant about 25 daffodils in a window box that is about 30 inches long, 6 inches wide and deep. I prefer to get all of one kind so that they all bloom at once.

I fill the window box a little more than half full with my mixture of compost and potting soil and place the bulbs, pointy end up, in the soil. Once I have them all in place I push them down more and fill up the box with more potting soil-compost mixture.

Be sure to label each pot with the date planted, and what is planted. Later that will tell you when you can bring it into the warmth. Daffodils take about 12 weeks of dormancy before they should be brought into the warmth of the house, and tulips do better with 4 full months. Little things like crocus can be forced in 8 to 10 weeks.

Often bulbs will send roots out through the holes in the bottom of the pot or send up green shoots telling you they are ready. But don’t rush the process. Tulips brought up early will have nice green leaves, but no flowers.

Ideally temperatures for bulbs used for forcing will be between 32 and 50 degrees, though colder temperatures should not be a problem (my basement often goes below freezing for a few days). Left in a warm location, the bulbs will grow green tops — but not blossoms. Bulbs left in a cold basement or garage will do just fine. Inside the bulkhead to your cellar might be the right temperature, too.

You need to be aware that rodents like eating bulbs (indoors or out) — especially tulips. My basement has, most years, harbored mice and sometimes even a resident red squirrel. Unlike tulips, daffodils are not of interest to rodents as they are mildly poisonous. I keep my pots of tulips covered with hardware cloth (a fine-mesh metal screening available at hardware stores). But wear gloves if you cut hardware cloth to size — the edges are as sharp as razor wire.

You can double your production of blooms by planting two layers of bulbs in a container. Plant big bulbs deep in the pots, add soil, and then plant a layer of crocus or other small bulbs above them.

It is important to check on the bulbs you are forcing at least once a month, particularly if you have put wire rodent-proofing over the containers. I’ve had shoots try to grow through the hardware cloth and get damaged. If the bulbs are sending up shoots, remove the wire mesh. I also don’t want the soil mix to get bone dry, so I check it and water a little if it’s dry. The bulbs will grow roots when first planted, and then go dormant if kept in a dark, cold location.

When it is time to bring up your potted bulbs into a warm place, let them wake up gently. My mudroom is good for starting them: there is some sunshine but it is cool. Then, once the shoots are up and green, I place the containers on my sunniest window sills, either east- or west-facing.

Most bulbs that have been forced are not likely to flower the following year, even if you keep the foliage alive until spring and plant them outside. I’ve done it, and some daffodils will build up the energy to blossom after a while, but tulips are not so cooperative.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, West Africa, many years ago. There I could have flowers blooming every day of the year. It spoiled me, perhaps, because I still want flowers every day. Forcing bulbs is one way to have lots of blossoms when there is snow on the ground. So don’t wait until mid-December to start your bulbs; get on this project now.

Featured photo: Forced tulips are my favorites. .Courtesy photo.

Work now, enjoy in the spring

Spring is all about planting, but many gardeners overlook fall planting. Now is the time to plant garlic and spring-blooming flowers planted as bulbs. For me, fall planting is a joy; the thought of bulbs nestled into the ground just awaiting spring fills me with hope. And if you pick a good spot and plant them well, you are sure to succeed.

Let’s start with garlic. I like to say that garlic is, essentially, a no-work crop: plant it, mulch it to keep the weeds down, and then harvest it. Right now, the hardest part will be to find “seed garlic” — nice fat garlic bulbs that you can divide into cloves and plant. Many suppliers have sold out, but try your local garden center or feed and grain store. Don’t buy conventional garlic at the grocery store to plant. It is usually treated with a chemical to keep it from sprouting, and is the wrong kind for New England. Hard-neck garlic is what you want.

When should you plant garlic? Late October is when I plant, but it is fine to plant earlier or later. It’s best to plant after the soil has cooled down, but you will want the plants to establish roots before the soil freezes.

Pick a bed in your vegetable or flower garden that is in full sun, and that has nice, rich soil that retains water but does not stay soggy in rainy times. If you have heavy clay, work in plenty of good compost — either your own or some you purchase in a bag.

I plant garlic cloves in rows about 8 inches apart. Each clove I plant 3 inches deep and 3 or 4 inches apart. I run my CobraHead weeder down the bed to create a furrow and to loosen the soil. I sprinkle some Pro-Gro or other organic bagged fertilizer into the furrow and run my hand tool through it again. Then I push in the cloves, pointy end up, cover it with soil, and pat it lightly.

Finally I take mulch hay or straw and cover the bed with about 12 inches of loose straw. I know that seems like a lot, but by winter’s end it will be just 4 to 6 inches of cover. That should prevent most weeds from growing all summer — or until you harvest in late July. I always save my best bulbs of garlic for planting.

This is also the time to plant daffodils, tulips and all the small bulbs that bloom early. If you have a fenced yard, that will keep the deer from eating tulip blossoms when in bud — a real treat for them. If you have a problem with deer, you might want to avoid tulips, or plant them in pots for forcing.

Tulips and daffodils are generally labeled as early-season, mid-season or late-season. Plant plenty of each. Early ones are generally shorter, and I plant some, but I love the tall ones best. Maureen is my favorite tulip: She is 22 to 24 inches tall, and ivory to white. Fabulous in a vase. Menton is another nice tall one, pink petals outside with orange and white inside.

Although I have daffodils that still bloom after more than 50 years, tulips are less perennial. My rule of thumb is that if I plant 50, all will bloom the first year, half of that the second year, and half again the third year. So I often plant them as annuals, and pull them or cut off the foliage when I plant annual flowers over them in June.

Bulb planting tools are sold that you can plunge into the soil and pull out a core of soil three inches wide. I don’t like them. Soil sticks to the tool, and I find it much more time-consuming to plant bulbs one at a time. I prefer to excavate a big hole in the ground and plant 25 or 50 at once. Soil augers for your cordless drill are sold for planting bulbs, but most drills are not strong enough to do the job.

Here’s what I do: I select a nice sunny spot that drains well and is not soggy in winter. Then I dig an oval hole about 3 feet long and 2 feet from front to back, which will serve well for 25 bulbs. For daffodils and tulips I want the hole at least 6 inches deep. I put the soil into a wheelbarrow or onto a blue tarp so it won’t make a mess of my lawn or garden bed.

Next I add some good compost and either “Bulb Booster” or slow-release organic fertilizer, and work it into the soil with my CobraHead weeder, a single-tined hand tool. Then I arrange the bulbs in the loosened soil in the bottom of the hole, with fat bottom down, and the pointy head up. I mix some compost into the soil I removed, and carefully fill the hole.

If space is at a premium, you can plant two layers of bulbs in the same hole. Plant the big bulbs in the bottom of your hole and add soil up to 2 or 3 inches below the soil line. Then plant small bulbs like crocus, snowdrops, glory-of-the-snow or squill. The small, early bulbs will delight you, and then the daffodils or tulips will overwhelm you — particularly if you forget you double-planted the bed.

I’ve been planting bulbs around my 2-plus acres for decades because spring blossoms are the perfect antidote to a long New Hampshire winter. It is always a challenge to find a spot to squeeze bulbs in, but there is always someplace. This fall I am planting them between hostas I planted last year. The hosta foliage will hide the dying leaves of the daffodils after they bloom.

Featured photo: Tulips are ephemeral, but worth trying. Courtesy photo.